KOZHIKODE: Septuagenarian Janaki Amma relishes her newfound love for Hindi in a small Kerala village and repeats the brief sentence taught to her as part of an effort by a panchayat to achieve 100% Hindi literacy.
At a time when Kerala, along with Tamil Nadu, is opposing any attempts of ‘Hindi imposition’, and netizens engaging in heated debates over the issue, Janaki Amma is bowled over by the articulation of the sentence “Ek thandhi andheri raat sadak pe ja rahi hai” and the granny repeats several times what the instructor taught her.
The need to communicate with the sizeable migrant worker population in the village seems to be the spark for such an initiative. The aim is to declare Chelannur a complete Hindi literate panchayat, the first such civic body in Kerala and probably the first in south India, by Republic Day next year, authorities in the Congress-governed Chelannur village panchayat here said.
The priority of the authorities was to implement a unique project with its limited funds utilising the human resource in the village panchayat. But, the practical reason that persuaded them to finalise the Hindi literacy programme was the huge presence of migrant workers in the panchayat.
Long before a Parliamentary panel’s recommendations to make Hindi the medium of instructions in higher education institutions triggered a controversy and states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu strongly opposing the proposal, the Chelannur village panchayat launched its efforts to turn itself completely Hindi literate.
Like Janaki Amma, hundreds of villagers, cutting across age, gender and educational barriers are learning Hindi in village panchayat.